Thursday, May 10, 2018

An interesting 15 mins or so with Don Braid that I initially missed.You can see him start to get annoyed by Corins move to the negative with his questions.Don is ALWAYS positive!!Enjoy.Don Braid says they are also trying to move to electric fork lifts and make greater use of solar power in their buildings.

Meanwhile, despite headline business confidence being weak in many surveys at the moment, Mr Braid says he's feeling optimistic about the economic outlook for New Zealand and he doesn't know why other businesses are grumpy.

Mainfreight's straight-talking group managing director has an infectious zest for business.
Even Europe's ongoing economic turmoil fails to dampen Braid's optimism, despite the Kiwi logistics operator having spent more than $200 million buying a Netherlands-based freight firm earlier this year, giving it a European footprint for the first time in its more than three-decade history.

Since the acquisition of the Wim Bosman Group the eurozone has spiralled to the brink of economic disaster, but 52-year-old Braid says doing business on the debt-ravaged continent is nothing other than an "exciting" prospect.

He points out that 172 million people live within a 350 km radius of Wim Bosman's headquarters in's-Heerenberg, on the Dutch-German border.

"You can imagine what they need to eat, drink and use," says Braid in the boardroom of Mainfreight's building in Otahuhu. "That gives us an enormous amount of opportunity."

And he should know, having spent his entire working life in the freight industry.

After leaving Timaru Boys' High School Braid joined the New Zealand Shipping Corporation as a clerk in 1976. His father was a truck driver, but he says that didn't influence his career decisions.

"I probably wasn't qualified enough to go to university," Braid says. "I think I've always enjoyed business, from an early age, so to be involved like I am today has been great. I'm pleased I didn't do anything else."

Mainfreight shareholders would be similarly pleased.

In the decade Braid has spent at its helm, the company has become a global logistics player with operations on every populated continent apart from Africa.

In the 12 months to March 31, Mainfreight - which has been one of the top performing stocks on the NZX this year - posted record sales of $1.34 billion. The company is on track to go close to the $2 billion mark in its current financial year, Braid says, having already posted an almost $900 million revenue for the six months to September.

Bruce Plested, the firm's executive chairman who founded the company in 1978 with $7200 and a 1969 Bedford truck, recalls the day in 1994 when Braid - then a Freightways Group employee - had the job of pitching its Daily Freightways business to Mainfreight, which it acquired that year.
"Don gave this glowing account of [Daily Freightways] and I kept looking at him and thinking 'what a lot of bullshit'," Plested says.

"But I was fascinated that he could present this picture of a skeleton of a company ... and present it so brightly."

Braid, who joined Mainfreight through its purchase of Daily Freightways, says the company hasn't let the last few years of economic upheaval dull its ambitions.

"You need some energy and you need to be on the front foot," he says. "If you allow the recession to roll over the top of you there's a great chance it will."

While many of its NZX-50 peers have entered a period of stagnation, Mainfreight - it seems - thrives on hard times.

It has largely grown earnings and revenue since 2008 and tripled its share price between early 2009 and today.

"I think we're a better business because of adverse economic conditions, there's no doubt about that," he says.

Braid has been a beneficiary of the meteoric rise in Mainfreight's share price. He owns a 3 per cent stake in the firm, worth about $29 million.

The firm has earned a reputation within the market for being slickly-run.

New Zealand Shareholders' Association corporate liaison Des Hunt says Braid is one of the most effective listed company bosses in this country.

"He never talks about himself and always talks about long-term goals," Hunt says. "He never moans about the currency and is always positive."

Plested says that within a few months of the firm's acquisition of Daily Freightways, which became Daily Freight under Mainfreight ownership, he came to recognise Braid's strengths.

"He's sporting and tough and makes decisions quite fast," Plested says. "He implements things very well and you don't have to remind him about anything you're trying to achieve. He's got plenty of charm if he wants to have it ... and his leadership skills just stand out - people want to stand next to him."

Braid goes to great lengths to stress that the company's success is the result of the efforts of its entire, 5167-member "team" around the world.

"It's not about what I've done - it's about what we've done and what the business has done," he says.
Use of the word "staff" is banned within the company - one of a range of idiosyncrasies particular to the logistics firm.

Braid recalls with horror the memory of listening to a chief executive refer to her workers as "FTEs" - full-time equivalents - during a radio interview.

"I just think that's disgusting," he says.

Private parking spaces are also banned at Mainfreight - the group managing director has to find himself a spot in the carpark each morning after he drives through the front gate.

Offices are outlawed, even for Braid, whose desk is situated in the corner of a large, open-plan room occupied by the company's national team.

And analysts have been warned that they "won't get a second interview" if they make that mistake of calling Mainfreight a "trucking company".

Kiwis know the firm largely through its blue trucks that ply our highways, but the company also utilises sea, train and air freight to transport goods around the world.

"It's just a little rule that we've had because if they [analysts] keep calling us a trucking company they clearly haven't done their research."

Weekly operational reports are posted on the wall of the company cafeteria in Otahuhu, where all team members, including Braid, eat at a single, long table.

"There's no bureaucracy or hierarchy or superiority in the business. We're trying to break all that down."

Braid says the company strives to be de-centralised through giving responsibility to all individuals in the business and letting them make decisions.

Mainfreight people, he says, don't "live in question marks".

Like most Kiwi business leaders, Braid is self-effacing and doesn't fancy talking to journalists about his life outside the company.

"I don't think any of those things are really of interest to this," he says. "We need to try and paint the picture around Mainfreight here and what Mainfreight is, that to me is of more interest than whether I like rugby or cricket.

Why we chose Don Braid for top honour
Mainfreight's Don Braid rose above a solid field of finalists to be named New Zealand Herald Business Leader of Year.

His company has been a shining example of success amid tough global economic conditions.
Braid has earned a reputation within the market as a straight talker and one of the most effective NZX-50 bosses.

While many companies have been battening down the hatches this year, Mainfreight has been on the acquisition trail - purchasing a Netherlands-based freight business which operates in Belgium, France, Romania and Poland and Russia.

The company posted record earnings and revenue for its last full year and has continued to break records this financial year.

Braid said Mainfreight was on track to push close to the $2 billion sales mark by March next year.
The firm's shares have been one of the best performing stocks on the NZX, returning more than 20 per cent in the year to date.

Forsyth Barr analyst Rob Mercer said the market had confidence in Mainfreight after it managed to grow revenue and market share and outperform its peers during the global financial crisis.

Friday, December 2, 2011

Mainfreight Ltd [MFT.NZX] had a great 2012 first half result announced at the beginning of November and since then the share price has rallied from around $9.75 to close at $10.48 yesterday - a rise of just over 7%.

The share price has rallied from $7.25 12 months ago and touched an all-time high of $10.75 in August and at yesterday's closing price gives this stock a rise of well over 40% in a market that has been flatish.

The thing is, as good as the November result is and indications from management that things are looking good for the next quarter, the share price really has gotten away from the realities of the short to medium term prospects for the company.

While the company is doing well right now the European banking crises and the fallout from that cannot be discounted and new investors in Mainfreight, in my humble and not so humble opinion have not factored this in.

International trade is likely to be impacted from the Euro situation, how badly we don't know, but this will clearly have an impact on logistics operators like MFT and their recent acquisition of European logistics company Wim Bosman Group will probably be the hardest hit.

I must add that the company is the best run NZX listed company in New Zealand and has done well to manage through the last 3 years of economic turmoil but the share price is well over valued and will pull back at some stage.

I am contemplating selling my holding for a good 120% plus gain over 4 years and buying back at a latter stage.

Watch for a pull-back to below 6 bucks on an international trade slow-down.

Not only has the recent acquisition of Wim Bosman Group proven to be a winner but the company has also grown organically across most geographical areas of operation.

The company booked a net profit of $14.22 million for the first three months of the 2012 financial year; an increase of 109% on the previous year’s result of $6.82 million (excluding abnormals the increase was 115%). This was on revenue of $449.86 million up 43% from $315.25 million in the comparable quarter last year. Revenue excluding Wim Bosman contributions saw sales improve 5% to $331.04 million.

The fact that the company did so well during a global economic downturn is once again down to good cost controls and great management of the business from the top down to be able to grab the extra business that they have.

Key Points

* Net profit of $14.22 million for the first three months of the 2012 financial year, an increase of 109% on the previous year’s result of $6.82 million (excluding abnormals the increase was 115%)

*Revenue increased by 43% to $449.86 million, from $315.25 million in the comparative period last year. Excluding Wim Bosman contributions, sales improved 5% to $331.04 million.

* With the exception of Asian operations Mainfreight has experienced growth momentum for all their business operations.

* Wim Bosman Group acquisition proven a good fit in the first 3 months of inclusion within the Mainfreight group and management confident of building on the gains made for this quarter compared to the 2010 comparable period.

The company has given a nod to the market that this first quarter result is in line with their expectations and the commentary provided at the MFT AGM in late July.

July and August have continued to trade well and management expect the 2012 financial year to be an improvement on 2011.